FEBRUARY/MARCH 2000
By Bayard Stern
Managing Editor Florida State Times
Since he was 10 years old and living in Orlando, Bill Wharton knew he wanted to play music. He came to Florida State and earned an English Education degree "just in case the music thing didn't work out."
His music career has worked out. He is a prolific song writer, plays slide guitar and describes his music as Delta Style Blues. His fifth album, "Recipes," is a CD Rom with 13 songs - and recipes for his favorite dishes. It was produced by his own record company and is a top seller on Amazon.com for independent blues.
Wharton is popular in France and has toured there extensively, has played in 48 states and is scheduled to perform in Alaska, which will make it 49. Wharton's web site (www.sauceboss.com) has had more than 700,000 hits.
Now 52, and nicknamed the Sauce Boss, he's playing more music than ever and has created a unique niche for himself by combining two things he loves - performing a wild show and making gumbo.
"We've fed 70,000 people in the last 10 years," Wharton said. "That's over 6,500 gallons of gumbo, and it's always been for free. We've never charged money for the gumbo."
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When does Wharton have time to cook for all these people and where does he find them? At his gigs. Wharton cooks a giant cauldron of gumbo while he plays on stage with his band, The Ingredients. In between his songs, Wharton taunts the audience with handfuls of crawdads, shrimps, and lots of his own Liquid Summer Datil Pepper Hot Sauce before dumping it into the steamy froth.
Wharton plays, sings and stirs the ingredients in the giant steel pot, never missing a chord on his steel guitar. At the end of the show Wharton and members of his band serve bowl after bowl to usually patient fans, who line up for the spicy meal they have seen cooked before their eyes.
Why does Wharton do this in addition to his stage show?
"Gumbo is the big metaphor for what I do at my gig,"
he explains. "Everybody in the place is different. All different
sizes, colors and shapes of people show up. Somehow it all mixes
together into something that's tasty, and everyone comes together
and shares. The whole thing with me is we have so much, why don't
we forget our differences and share a meal together and maybe
we can work through some of this stuff we need to work on?"
Bill and Ruth (B.A. '69) dated in high school and were married while at FSU. For the past three years Ruth has been Bill's full-time business and promotions manager.
"I'm really a big fan of Bill's," she said. "Early on I became really committed to helping him achieve the stature I always knew he deserved. He's an incredible artist and he shares his whole heart and soul with his audiences, and it's a rare thing these days to find an artist who has that kind of depth in both artistry and compassion."
The Whartons live near Monticello, Fla., and have three children and two grandkids.